Description

Sophocles’s classical tragedy tells a riveting tale of murder and revenge. The play is haunted by bloody events that took place before the start of the action: Electra mourns for her dead father Agamemnon, who was slain by his wife and her mother Clytemnestra when he returned from the Trojan war. Electra now wants nothing but vengeance for her father’s death, but her sister Chrysothemis tries to talk her out of it. Electra wishes that her brother Orestes were with her because she is sure that he would help facilitate her ideas, but Orestes left the court when he was a small child. Unbeknownst to her, however, Orestes has returned to Argos in disguise. In order to keep his identity concealed, Orestes spreads the news that he is in fact dead—and when Electra hears of her brother’s supposed death, she is devastated. Not knowing the truth, she ends up face-to-face with Orestes but unaware of his true identity. Finally, however, brother and sister manage to reunite and arrange a plan to murder their mother Clytemnestra and her new lover, Aegisthus. As the siblings put their plan in action, the play builds towards a violent climax, indicating the horribly cyclical nature of revenge.

About the Author

Sophocles (ca. 496-406 B.C.) was born in Attica, Greece, to a wealthy family. His stellar education and social prominence perhaps led to his becoming a pillar of his community throughout his life. Sophocles played key roles in many of Athens’s governing bodies, whether political, military, or financial. He made a name for himself as a dramatist in 468 B.C., when he famously won the Dionysia drama competition. This honor was no small accomplishment, as Sophocles beat out Aeschylus, who had for some time been considered Athens’s greatest playwright. Sophocles went on to write many plays in his long lifetime, and several of them survive today. He is best known for his Oedipus cycle, which includes Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonnus, as well as for his other dramas Electra, Philoctetes, and Ajax. Many of Sophocles’s works deal with the painful human dilemmas that even the greatest of leaders must face. To this day, Sophocles is considered one of the founding fathers of Western drama, with his plays enjoying thousands of years on the stage in performances around the world.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

ORESTES, _son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra_.
ELECTRA, _sister of Orestes_.
CHORUS _of Argive Women_.
CHRYSOTHEMIS, _sister of Orestes and Electra_.
CLYTEMNESTRA.
AEGISTHUS.
PYLADES _appears with_ ORESTES, _but does not speak_.
SCENE. Mycenae: before the palace of the Pelopidae.
The avenger of thy ...